The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has decided to decrease the restricted fishing zone which it allowed Gaza fishermen to work in off the coast of the besieged enclave for about two months.

Chief of the fishermen Nizar Ayyash told Quds Press that he was officially told that the IOA cancelled the nine-nautical-mile fishing zone after the sardine season ended.

According to the Israeli decision, the fishing zone will be six nautical miles as before.

Ayyash pointed out, however, that the Israeli occupation navy persisted in attacking fishermen within nine to six nautical miles during that period.

The Palestinian ministry of civil affairs had announced last April that it agreed with the Israeli side to expand the fishing zone from six to nine nautical miles within a distance extending from the coast of Gaza Valley to the Egyptian border in southern Gaza.

Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) on Saturday distributed, in cooperation with the Turkish Relief Foundation, humanitarian aid to 1,560 Palestinian families affected by the Israeli aggression on Gaza in summer 2014.

Anadolu agency quoted Yigit Olcay, head of the TRC’s delegation to Gaza Strip, as saying that 8,000 affected families in al-Shujaiya district have benefited from the humanitarian relief which included foodstuffs and cleaning materials.

This was the first batch of the Turkish pledges in the donors’ conference which was held in Egypt in October 2014.

Turkey’s donation was estimated at 200 million dollars to be distributed on four stages during the period between 2015 and 2017. The second batch will be sent in the holy month of Ramadan, he pointed out.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported, Saturday, that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped two Palestinians from the southern West Bank district of Hebron; one was taken prisoner from his home while the other was abducted at a military roadblock.

The PPS said the soldiers invaded and searched several homes in Hebron city, and kidnapped one Palestinian, identified as Rami Hamdi Yousef al-Dijon, 33.

It added that another Palestinian, identified as Mohammad Ghaleb Abdul-Qader D’eis, 21, was kidnapped at the Container Roadblock, south of Jerusalem.

Israeli warplanes launched at dawn Thursday airstrikes targeting two military sites used by Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, in the central and southern Gaza Strip.

The PIC reporter said that Israeli planes fired at least two rockets at a site used by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.

A second strike hit a site known as Shuhada al-Qassam west of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Medical sources said that no injuries were reported in the two airstrikes.

Israeli media sources claimed earlier Wednesday that a rocket launched from the besieged Gaza Strip hit “an open area in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council in southern Israel.” No injuries or damage were reported.

Earlier this month, Israel carried out a four-day airstrike and shelling campaign across the Gaza Strip which killed a Palestinian woman and injured at least five more people.

Israeli navy ships opened fire, Wednesday, targeting fishers in Palestinian waters, northwest of Gaza city, while the soldiers opened fire on shepherds and farmers, in different parts of the coastal region.

The navy ships fired many live rounds on Palestinian fishing boats in the Sudaniyya Sea area, northwest of Gaza city.

Many Palestinian boats were hit by navy fire, causing damage, and pushing the fishers to sail back to shore, fearing additional escalation.

In addition, soldiers stationed across the border fence, fired many live rounds of farmers and shepherds, in Palestinian lands, along the border fence, east of the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses said the soldiers in Sofa military base, northeast of Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, opened fire on the fishers and farmers in the area, forcing them away.

The soldiers also opened fire of farmers east of Abasan al-Kabeera town, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region.

A similar attack took place east of the al-Qarara town, northeast of Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and east of the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza, targeting farmers and shepherds.

The attacks did not lead to casualties, but forced the Palestinians to leave the attacked areas, in fear of additional military escalation.

The Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip face ongoing violations in different parts of the coastal region.

The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights has reported, Sunday, that the Israeli navy has carried out at least 17 attacks against Gaza fishers, since the beginning of this year, and kidnapped 65 fishers.

Al-Mezan said that the navy has escalated its violations against the fishers in the coastal region, despite Israel’s claims of allowing them to fish within 9 nautical miles in the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, starting on April 3rd.

The attacks range between the use of live fire, the abduction of fishers, and the confiscation of boats and fishing tools. Israel is also still banning the entry of fiberglass and other materials that are essential for building and maintaining boats, due to its illegal siege on Gaza since 2007.

Al-Mezan strongly denounced the ongoing Israeli violations against the fishers in Gaza territorial waters, and its illegal policies of collective punishment against dozens of thousands of fishers, and their families, denying them from their only source of livelihood.

It said that the vast majority of fisher families in Gaza are below the poverty line in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s siege, and its ongoing attacks against the fishers and their boats.

The Center also said that the way Israel deals with the fishers is nothing short of attempting to terrorize them, especially by subjecting them to degrading and harsh treatment after abducting them, and confiscating their boats, and the threats against them.

In addition, al-Mezan said that, in most cases, the fishers are released just hours after their arrest, as the Navy has no legal course to abduct them, therefore, cannot send them to court, even though the courts themselves are part of this illegal occupation.

“The fishers have the right to fish and work in Palestinian territorial waters in Gaza; this is a basic Human Right,” al-Mezan said, “What the army and the navy are doing are assaults that come in direct violations of the basic principles of International Law, and International Human Rights Law.”

It renewed its call to the International Community to perform its moral and legal duties, and effectively act on ending the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza, as it constitutes an ongoing war crime.

Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Sunday morning, at several Palestinian fishing boats near the shore in Gaza waters, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, kidnapped ten fishers, and confiscated five boats in two separate attacks.

The fishers, who were kidnapped in the second attack, have been identified as Ahmad Mohammad Zayed and Ibrahim Zayed.

They were all taken to an unknown destination, after the navy towed their boats.

The attack is part of repeated Israeli violations against the fishers in the besieged coastal region, in addition to its attacks against Gaza farmers and workers, in Palestinian lands close to the border fence.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Saturday morning opened fire at Palestinian farmers and fishermen in the Gaza Strip, with no reported casualties.

Local sources reported that Israeli soldiers at Kissufim military post opened fire at farmers and fields east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Luckily, all farmers escaped unhurt from the area.

In central Gaza, farmers and shepherds were also exposed in the morning to a gunfire attack by soldiers during their presence in an agricultural area to the east of Deir al-Balah. No one was injured in the assault.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation navy opened machinegun fire at fishermen and their boats off the coast of Gaza City and forced them to return ashore.

Under an inhumane siege, the Israeli army keeps attacking, injuring and killing civilians, farmers and fishermen almost on a daily basis, without any shred of respect for the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza or even the international law.

Israeli soldiers, stationed across the border fence, opened fire on Friday targeting Palestinian protesters, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza, and east of Gaza city, wounding two with live bullets.

The soldiers assaulted dozens of Palestinians, holding the weekly protest, close to the border fence east of al-Boreij by firing many live rounds and gas bombs on them, wounding one with a live bullet, while many suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Another Palestinian, 25 years of age, was also shot with a live bullet, after the soldiers, stationed near the Nahal Oz military base, across the border fence, opened fire on protesters, east of Gaza city. Many Palestinian suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said Friday that the threats of the newly appointment Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, against the movement and the Gaza Strip, do not scare it, and that it will always remain steady.

Member of the Political Bureau of Hamas Fathi Hammad said during a massive procession marking the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, west of Gaza city, said that Hamas will not be intimidated into submission, and will respond to “any attack with a similar one, and any war with war.”

“We are not calling for war or escalation,” Hammad said, “But if it was forced on us, we will be ready to fight till the end.”

His statements came after Lieberman threatened to assassinate all the political leaders of the Hamas movement, should they “fail to return the bodies of soldiers,” who were killed during the 2014 Israeli aggression on the coastal region, that led to the death of more than 1600 Palestinians and dozens of thousands of injuries in 52 days, in addition to the complete or partial destruction of dozens of thousands of homes, public and private facilities, including hospitals and medical center.

Referring to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hammad said that “Abbas has no place in the leadership, and must step aside.”

At the end of the procession, many Hamas members tore and burnt pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the newly appointed Defense Minister Lieberman, in addition to the sacked minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Palestinian medical sources have reported, Thursday, that a Palestinian farmer suffered moderate wounds after an Unexploded Object, dropped by the army in a previous invasion, detonated near him while he was working on his land, east of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.

The sources added that the farmer was moved to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, suffering moderate wounds.

It is worth mentioning that dozens of Palestinians, including children and elderly, have been killed by Israeli UXO’s in various parts of the coastal region, due to repeated Israeli invasions, and frequent military aggressions and wars against the residents of the besieged and improvised area.

Israeli soldiers opened fire, on Thursday morning, targeting several Palestinian farmers east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while navy ships also opened fire on fishers in Palestinian territorial water, near Gaza city.

The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that the soldiers, stationed on military towers near the border fence, east of Khuza’a town, east of Khan Younis, fired many live rounds at the farmers forcing them out of their lands.

WAFA added that Israeli navy ships also fired many live rounds on Palestinian fishing boats, less than six nautical miles from the Gaza coast. The attack led to property damage; no injuries or arrests were reported.

The attacks are part of repeated Israeli violations against the Palestinians in the besieged, war-torn and improvised Gaza Strip.